Selected quad for the lemma: sense_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	church_n	particular_a	universal_a	2,966	5	9.4467	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48479	The liberty of human nature, discuss'd, stated, and limited, in a sermon preached by J. Lambe.	Lambe, John, 1648 or 9-1708.	1684 (1684)	Wing L218; ESTC R32872	12,909	42

the Senate and in Fact and Practice the Subjects of Commonwealths are as severely governed as those of any Monarchy we know Wherefore then the true Liberty of Man in his politic Capacity as in all things else is to act as Reason that is the Interest of human Nature or the necessities of Society require namely with the most obsequious Submission To lay aside the airy Dream of original imaginary Power in him that cursed Spring of Mischief and Confusion to consider his Incompetency to judge his Governors or their proceedings to be always apt to believe the best and ready to assert the Authority which is the Cement of the establisht Government with Vigor and hearty Zeal in his place and station And this is a Notion as easy to be understood as it is just secure and safe in practice But to take the Liberty of the Subject for any Latent Direct or Positive Authority residing in them is foolish to Absurdity because it destroys the very Reason or Principle upon which the Opinion it self is founded namely the safety of the People For if we could suppose what can never be made to appear by any Example a people perfectly free and at their own dispose that which never was by general content did appoint and constitute a Prince or Governors enduing him or them with such degrees of Power as they thought fit reserving to themselves the Sovereignty such a Government I say would prove in a little time impracticable and vain For where all have Authority none have Through corruption of human Nature the Generality of Men hate their Superiors had they therefore any share in the Government or any real power it would beget such an haughty opinion of themselves raise such extravagant Passions as must necessarily put the Government into frequent danger of Dissolution It is therefore the Wisdom and Felicity of a man to preserve the Authority of his Reason from the Impositions of popular opinions prejudice and passion in these things To consider his Station and never suffer the plausible Pretences of designing Malecontents to debauch his reason or shock his Loyalty so shall he contribute to the preservation of the Government and in that to his own happiness to the free enjoyment of the liberty of his mind and will in all those other things wherein it may be justly exercised How agreeable would this Disposition under the People to their Prince and to one another what a Confidence would it raise what delight what free and cheerful Intercourse how would all Suspicion and Hypocrisy Fears Jealousies and odious Characters be banisht human Conversation And it is this this Humility and Modesty in the Subject that is the best security in the world of real Priviledges of public Interest and steddy Government There is in Man such a natural Condescension such Civility such sense of Love and Duty observed that it is an affront to the Ingenuity of Human Nature to suppose a Prince should be severe upon a willing and obedient people But those who mistake the Liberty of the Subject for sovereign Power as the Republican or for a freedom from all Coertion Laws and Government as the Enthusiast or for a Liberty of capricious Censure of controlling Princes of reducing them to Reason by force of improving and practising upon Fears and Possibilities as the factious Monarchist these I say whilst they would seem so great Asserters of their Liberty are in truth as very Slaves as any in the world They are always busied with mighty Earnestness about such matters as are above their Comprehension but there cannot be a greater misery than hot and fiery Spirits acting upon false Appearances upon crude and indistinct Notions and Apprehensions of things How is such a person galled and agitated from himself from the confusion of his own Mind and how fitly is he prepared for every cunning Patriot and designing Malecontent to act upon They are bewitched with the word Liberty as with a Charm live in perpetual passion in ignorant and imprudent Zeal they govern themselves by inconstant Principles are distracted by multiplicity of new Designs neglect their Business destroy their Virtue expose their Fortunes and centre often in an ignominious Death And thus the Proposition is undoubtedly true in our Relation to the Government that to preserve c. I will not be brought under the power of any thing in Matters Civil 4. The time will not permit me to illustrate the Apostles Rule as I proposed in the last place with Relation to Religion or in Matters Divine and Spiritual And here I intended to show that Man by natural instinct found himself oblig'd to worship God That he is endued with sufficient Abilities if he carefully employ them and have opportunity of improving them to judge of such a demeanor or habit of life as is likely to be accepted of him That every man whose Education and Opportunities will permit him is obliged to assert and exercise this Liberty of proving all things that at length when he has found the best he may hold it fast 1 Thes 5.21 1 Joh. 4.1 of determining his Faith and Practice according as his Reason after the most diligent search and faithful use of all the means of Knowledge shall direct him That Reason will prompt him to consult the Law of Nature the common Sense of man-kind the divine Revelation the consent of the universal Church the Authority of the Church he lives in That whosoever judges of true Religion by these rules which are the Principles in the study of Religion wherein alone the Mind can rest and satisfie it self acts most rationally and therefore most freely That the difficulties in the study of Religion are such that true Ingenuity of mind will dispose and oblige to a modest acquiescence in the definition of the Church That therefore Christian Liberty is not a liberty of serving God according to the suggestions of private fancy without any farther Respect that this is the unhappy fountain of most of the Heresies Schisms wild and extravagant Opinions which infest and vex the Church That therefore also it is not an exemption from Laws Ecclesiastical or restraints in the outward Celebration of Religion upon such pains as the Church and State shall find necessary that if the Theory and Practice of Religion were at the Will and Choice of every Subject it would be impossible for the Prince to preserve his people in Peace and Godliness That therefore lastly it is not an indifference to all Religion but a readiness of mind to embrace whatsoever either from the nature of the thing or from the authority with which it comes attested shall appear to be True or Good That thus to study and to inform our selves according to our opportunities in the nature and truth of Religion with due submission to Authority gives a man a steddy Confidence and Security in his Mind a sober judgment assurance in his Practice He knows how to behave himself under all the different modes and fashions of Religious Worship he cannot easily be drawn into Superstition and Idolatry on the one hand nor into Schism by Scrupulosity or Ignorance on the other He easily distinguishes Graviora Legis from the Condientia virtutis as Origen styles them finally the Religion of such a man is his own his deliberate act God is his Choice and will therefore be his Reward But whosoever takes the Measures of his Religion from the constitution of his body from vulgar opinions of Sanctity from the sense of such particular Persons as he shall happen to esteem or from any other Principle than that of his own Reason directed soberly and with all submission and deference to the Church universal and that in particular whereof he is a Member which is highly and strictly rational is under the greatest slavery that it is possible to fall into For if he be a man of any understanding he will always be perplexed in his Mind and diffident in himself always uncertain and therefore always liable to be troubled and confounded because the Principles upon which he proceeds viz. bodily temper vulgar opinion the sense of particular Persons and the like are mutable and apt to vary every day And thus as briefly as I could I have illustrated the Apostles rule or the Wisdom of preserving the authority of our Reason and the Liberty of our Will from the usurpations of Prejudice sensual Appetites and Passions I will not be brought under the power of any thing What therefore now remains but that we resolve to govern our Opinions and Practice by this Wise and Noble Rule of that Apostle How can we conceive a man more perfect than one whose understanding is free fitted to judge and always ready to receive the Impressions of Truth and Goodness whose Principles are Eternal his Opinion deliberate in Morals wise and upright in his Conversation steddy easy and indifferent whose Religion is firm and his Loyalty immoveable Others may have the Shape these only have the Form these only live the life of Men. Pulcherrimum victoriae genus est seipsum vincere It is the most glorious of Victories the highest Attainment thus to command our selves External Acquisitions may give us power and opportunities of licentious living but perfect freedom is within our selves when Prejudice and Passion Pride and Ambition Envy and Avarice and all the Legion of contracted Prejudices and Immoveable Habits shall be subdued when the Son of God by the Illuminations of his Spirit and the Operations of his Grace shall make us free then shall we be free indeed 2 Cor. 3.17 To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be ascribed all Honor Praise and Obedience now and for ever Amen FINIS